Railroad-spike



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PETER PETERSEN AND HORACE A. GLOSS-ER, OF FAIRCHILD, WISCONSIN.

RAILROAD-SPIKE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 433,816, dated August 5, 1890.

Application filed June 2, 1890 Serial No. 354,014. (No model.)

To all whom, t may concern,.-

Be it known that we, PETER PETEEsEN and HORACE A. CLOSSER, citizens of the United States, residing' at Fairchild, in the county of Eau Claire and State of Wisconsin, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Railroad-Spikes; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

Our invention relates to that class of railroad-spikes which are provided with shoulders or beards in order to prevent the spike becoming loose in the sleeper and losing its hold on the rail; and it'consists of a headed spike having its body portion of equal thickness throughout, said body portion being provided with retrorsely-inclined shoulders or beards and transverse knife-edged foot termination.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a transverse section of a railroad-sleeper and an elevation of our spike embedded therein and holding the iianged foot portion of a rail; which latter is shown in section; and Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same.

In the drawings, A represents a sleeper, B a rail, and C our improved spike. The spike C is formed with a head c of ordinary construction. The shank or body portion c of the spike is of prismatieal shape and is provided on its left and right sides with transverse triangular shoulders or beards c2. These shoulders are arranged parallel with the head c and have inwardly-inclined top surfaces c3 and terminate with acute edges c4. The shoulders are so formed on the spike that the prismatical shape of the latter is maintained, and all indentations or depressions for facilitating the formation of said shoulders, which must of necessity weaken the spike, are avoided by our construction, and a spike of equal strength` and stiness as that of a plain spike,with the shaping of the spike in its manufacture and reduces the frictional resistance of the spike while being driven into wood to a minimum. By inelining the surfaces c3 downwardly toward the shank the wood fibers forced aside by the entering spike will, by reason of'their elasticity, glide over the edges c4 and close around the shank proper of the spike, so as to prevent any upward movement of the same, as the wood fibers cannot slide over the sur'- faces Cain order to let the edges c4 pass by and up. In old constructions,where shoulders are provided with top surfaces c3, standing at right or obtuse angles to the shank, it has been observed that the wood fibers yield outwardly and pass oversaid shoulders when the spikes are moved upwardly, either by the motion of the train passing over the rails or when the spike is being removed for any other purpose, while with the use of our spikeany attempt to remove the same will cause the bers of the wood to collect between the shoulders and shank and firmly hold the spike. Itwill also be observed that the shoulders or beards on our spike prevent the fibers of the wood slipping over the same, and in removing the spike the ibers will be shattered and make it very diflicult to withdraw the spike. The re sistance in withdrawing our spike is sufficient to require great eiiort to remove it from the sleeper. The foot termination ci. ofthe spike stands transversely to the shoulders c2 and is formed with a knife-edge c6, and its tapered sides e7 join the sides of the shank with an easy curvature e8, thereby facilitating the penetration of the spike and avoiding the scraping and grinding of the severed ends of the tibers, which take place in spikes in which the lcurvature o8 is not employed and where the tapered sides el form corners with the shanks. The corners in the old constructions abrade the wood libers and produce a very fine broken orground mass of Wood-fiber fragments, which settle around the shank of the spike and permit the spike to be quite read-.

ily withdrawn incidentally or otherwise.

Owing to the powerful and ready operationof the shoulders of the spike a comparatively small number of the same will suffice to render a spike very effective. By the transverse arrangement of the edge c6 and shoulders c2,when the spike is driven in the shoulders will be wedged between the sound un- IOO severed Wood fibers and are thus most perfectly held, owing to the unyielding nature of the same.

W'hat we claim as our invention isl. As a new article of manufacture, a railroad-spike having a beveled entering end c5 o*i 07at a right angle to the head, shoulders or beards c2, extending entirely across two of its broad sides and arranged parallel with the head c and at right angles to the entering end c5 c6 c7, and the top surfaces o3 of the said shoulders or beards forming sharp knife-edges outside of the line of the body of the spike, and the spike having a uniform Width or thickness throughout its body on straight lines inside the shoulders or beards, substantially as described.

2. As a new article of manufacture, a rail- PETER PETERSEN. HORACE A. CLOSSER.

Witnesses:

WM. F. Hoon, C. M. WILSON. 

